With the advent of the Internet, enormous amounts of information have been made accessible via the network to users of all skill levels and backgrounds. This also applies to technological advances in hardware storage systems that facilitate storing large amounts of data (e.g., gigabytes and terabytes) on a user's home computer. Users, both home and professional, are now prone to store anything and everything since the cost to do so is becoming cheaper. However, searching through these large amounts of data then becomes problematic.
Many text input and search result interfaces have benefited from so-called “word-wheel” interfaces, also known as look-ahead, auto-complete, etc., whereby query suggestions or search results are displayed and adjust in response to each user keystroke. The user is given immediate feedback on the likely success of the formulation of their input; they can enter input more quickly, and even complete their task without even hitting Enter.
There are many popular commercial word-wheel examples. Always-on Internet connections, broadband connections, and protocols have enabled amazing interaction responsiveness in which keystrokes and results are exchanged over the wire in a seamless user experience.
However, to date, these systems are limited in scope by the data systems they access when attempting to provide their suggestions, completions, etc. For example, client-based systems such a browser address box and webpage desk bars only supply results from local lists and indices, while Internet-based systems only supply results from Internet-based lists and indices.